Fucker….

“I’m heading out for awhile. I’ll be in the north pasture.”

Jeff jumped up on Fire Star and gave me a smile. He had not had a beer for the last few days and I think he finally fucked all the girls in Austin he could. He had not gone out since the night of Ari’s party. Maybe things were about to turn around for him. I sure as shit hoped so. It was killing Ellie to see him being so upset over Ari. I saw him pull out his headphones and put them in.

“Have a good ride Jeff.”

“Thanks dude, later.”

I watched him ride off. I shook my head….I pray I never fuck up with Ellie. It would kill me if she was not in my life. I watched him ride until he turned around an oak tree and I couldn’t see him anymore. I turned to leave and got the shit scared out of me.

“Holy fucking shit Ari! You scared the shit out of me. What are you doing here?”

Ari just smiled as she was leaning up against the stables. She was dressed in jeans, boots a sweatshirt and a cowboy hat. I looked down at her hand looking for the ring but she had her left hand shoved into her pants pocket.

“Hi Gunner, nice to see you too asshole; and I told you I was planning on coming on out to the ranch this weekend.”

Something was up….she had a shit eating grin on her face. I kept looking down at her hand. Why didn’t she drive out with Ellie? Where was Jason? Jeff was going to flip out once he found out she was here.

“You’re thinking too much Gunner. You mind helping me saddle up a horse?”

“No, I don’t mind at all. You want to ride Chestnut again?”

“Who is Jeff on?”

I had to smile, damn this girl never ceased to amaze me. I shook my head as I walked over to the newest addition to the family. She was a beautiful paint horse who had a bit of spunk in her, fast as hell too and probably my favorite horse. Could be because Ellie name her Rose, said she loved the way she smelled. She smelled like a horse to me but who was I to argue.

“Jeff is on Fire Star. Rose here, she’s the horse you want. She’s a feisty five year old, has a mind of her own and sometimes she likes to just take over, push you to your limits. She tends to make you open your eyes and pay attention.”

Ari looked over and smiled at me. “Sounds like my kind of horse. Now let’s get her ready…I have a race to win.”

I stood there and watched Ari as she rode off on Rose. Ellie came up behind me and wrapped her arms around me. God she felt so fucking good. I was fighting the need to take her more and more. I was going to have to talk to her pretty soon to see where she was at with all of this. I needed her so fucking bad but the last thing I wanted to do was push her into sex. I was pretty sure she was feeling the same way.

“So you knew she was coming all along?”

“Yep!” Ellie said as she popped her P.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I turned and hugged her close to me.

“I would have but she was not one hundred percent sure she was going to make it. She had a problem she was trying to deal with and he was not walking away as easy as she thought he would.”

I pulled back and looked down at Ellie and tilted my head with a questioning look.

“She said no?”

Ellie laughed. “Of course she said no!”

“When did she say no? That night? Was it after she heard Jeff say he loved her when we were outside?”

“She pretty much told Jason she needed some fresh air and came outside after us. She heard what Jefferson said and went back in and pulled Jason aside to her bedroom and told him she couldn’t marry him. He didn’t take it very well and was pretty pissed. Turns out that Jason knew Jefferson liked Ari all along. I guess Jefferson used to talk about her in high school. One night when he was drunk, he told Jason and a few other football players he was going to marry her someday! She broke it completely off with him yesterday and told him she loved Jefferson and could not see herself with anyone else but him. Happiest damn day of my life, I could not stand him!”

I let out a laugh and put my arm around her shoulder. “Let’s go for a walk.”

Ellie and I walked and talked for what seemed like forever. It was so nice to just have time to do nothing but talk to her. Usually one of us was running to class, the library, practice, the gym or some other bullshit. We sat underneath a red oak and just talked about everything.

“Gunner, what’s going to happen when you graduate? You’ll be moving out here and I’ll still be in Austin. I thought the last two and half months were bad….that is going to be hell!”

I knew she had been worried about what would happen after graduation, but I had a plan to help ease her mind. I just couldn’t tell her yet.

“Don’t worry baby. I’m not moving out here full time right away. I have some other things I need to work out first and I’ll be working at the firm pretty much full time this summer I think.”

Ellie turned and looked at me with a strange look on her face.

“You didn’t tell me you were working there full time this summer! That is awesome!”

She leaned back into me and we sat there not saying another word. I wish I could tell her my main reason for not moving out to the ranch full time right away but……I wasn’t ready. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her away for good.

CHAPTER FIFTY ONE

J eff……

I sat under the same Oak tree I was sitting under the day Ari and I got stuck out here. Fire Star was walking around eating as much grass as he could. Hopefully nothing spooked him and he ran off because I had my iPod on and wouldn’t be able to hear it if he did.

Daughtry’s “Life After You” was playing. I had it on repeat pretty much since the day I destroyed any kind of future with Ari. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the oak. I started to picture her up against the jeep. The sound of her calling out my name, the look on her face when she told me she loved me.

FUCK!

God….would I ever be able to get over her. My fucking heart was tired of hurting. I pretty much tried to fuck her out of my head but I even sucked at that. If only I could go back in time to that day under this tree. I would do so many things differently. I would tell her how much I loved her and wanted her. It was too late.

She was getting married…..

Just then I felt something hit my boot. I opened my eyes and had to close them again and rub them. Was I seeing things? Ari was standing in front of me with her hands on her hips. She was smiling down at me. My heart started to pound so hard I could hear it. What was she doing here? How did she even know where I was? What makes me even think she was looking for me.

“Are you just going to sit there and stare at me Jeff? Maybe you’re trying to think of a way to get out of our rematch race?”

Wait…..what did she just say? I shook my head and pulled out my headphones. I couldn’t move my body. I just sat there looking up at her.

“Wh…..what are you doing here?”

She threw her head back and started to laugh. Next thing I knew she was moving closer to me and started to walk with her legs straddling mine. She took off her hat and tossed it to the ground. Holy Fuck she was beautiful. She fell down onto the ground and was on her knees looking right at me.

OH HOLY FUCKING SHIT…..don’t sit on me…please don’t sit on me…….

“I came for our rematch race Jeff. Don’t you remember the other day on my birthday you promised me a rematch.” She licked her lips as she looked down at my mouth. I had never in my life wanted to kiss her more than I did at this very moment. Why was she here though? She was getting married to someone else.

I looked down at her left hand and didn’t see a ring. I snapped my head back up at her and she let the sexiest fucking smile I had ever seen spread across her face.